


Epic Romance as Done by a King and Hobbit

by Kereea



Series: Afterlife Adventures [2]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Afterlife, Canonical Character Death, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, The Ring mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-25
Updated: 2014-02-25
Packaged: 2018-01-13 18:07:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1236058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kereea/pseuds/Kereea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How Bilbo and Thorin ran into each other before stumbling on the boys in the previous fic, Epic Romance as Told by Dwarven Princes. After all, Kili and Fili's take is one thing, but the thing itself is quite complicated. Or maybe not so complicated after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Epic Romance as Done by a King and Hobbit

**Author's Note:**

> After many requests I've decided to continue this as a side project whenever me A Bit Green at This muse isn't fully cooperating. So here is how Thorin and Bilbo met up in the plains between the afterlives and what they did there.

“Bilbo Baggins.”

Bilbo froze at that voice. He’d awoken on these plains after falling asleep as the shore of the Undying Lands neared, and he’d awoken short the nephew he’d taken the journey with. The air seemed to do wonders for his old bones and he felt perfectly healthy despite his age as he walked the hills, trying to figure out exactly what was going on.

But that _voice_. He’d given up on ever hearing that voice again.

He turned silently and his knees gave out upon seeing Thorin, son of Thrain son of Thror, exactly as he’d been on their mad quest across Arda.

Two strong hands caught him before he could hit the ground too hard and Bilbo simply stared.

He did not feel too ashamed at doing so, for Thorin was frankly doing the exact same. The dwarf king looked bewildered but under that confusion he looked so very happy that it made Bilbo’s heart soar at being the one to bring such happiness, as it always had in life.

Thorin slowly sank to his knees and pulled Bilbo close, “Bilbo. _Ghivashel_.”

There was pain in Thorin’s voice now and Bilbo would do anything to stop it, “Thorin, no, please don’t-”

Bilbo was released at once and Thorin put space between them, shamefaced.

With age came wisdom, and Bilbo frankly understood enough of Thorin Oakenshield’s guilt for two lifetimes. “I was saying don’t _cry_ Thorin, not don’t hold me. _Honestly._ ”

The king’s hands clenched at the hem of his coat, “I still had no right to do so. You…I should have waited.”

“Waited?” Bilbo glared at him. “Thorin Oakenshield it has been what feels like an Age since I saw you and you wanted to make it _longer_ before I could be with you again?”

“Then you…still…”

“You great idiot! Oh, save me from the stubbornness and honor of dwarves!” Bilbo groaned, rubbing his forehead. “Of course I still love you!”

Bilbo’s chest tightened as this seemed to only pain Thorin more. The king threw his arms around the hobbit. Bilbo could feel Thorin shaking, and much to his surprise he felt tears falling through his thinned white hair.

“You should not forgive me,” Thorin whispered. “I do not deserve it.”

“I forgave you long ago.” It was the truth; he would not have lied to one on their deathbed. Not about that.

“Not for that accursed incident. For not being there,” Thorin whispered raggedly.

“Thorin, you could not help dying,” Bilbo said, running a hand though the king’s hair.

Thorin pulled back and Bilbo had not seen such pain in those eyes since the mess with the Arkenstone. But these eyes were not also clouded with goldlust, making the pain even sharper.

“I saw,” Thorin said. “I heard you, asking me why I wasn’t there. I was, ghivashel, but I could not help you, could not reach you.”

“You…saw?” Bilbo asked. He’d been lost to grief for over a decade, a ghost of what he’d been, really, his only comfort that accursed ring…

“I had to,” Thorin said. “I could not be with you, truly, but I could watch.”

Bilbo’s blood ran cold. “You know about the ring.”

Thorin’s grip tightened. “I saw, yes.”

Bilbo knew he made some dreadful noise at that knowledge as he fell against Thorin. He did not care how awful it sounded, truly, but the knowledge that someone had _watched_ him fall to the ring, fall under its spell more and more as the years wore on, that it was someone who _cared_ for him… “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Thorin asked.

“You cannot tell me watching did not bring you pain. I have never wanted to bring you pain, Thorin,” Bilbo whispered.

“You did not know. About the ring or about me.”

“I just…when I thought of you, or of the boys, you were happy at last in the Halls, as you should have been,” Bilbo said. “Why…aren’t you?”

“My nephews and I could not find our happiness there. Not while things were unfinished and Kili’s heart lay elsewhere.”

“Kili’s heart…the elf maiden?” Bilbo asked.

Thorin shot him a wry glance, “I’d cast doubts on whether or not she’s still a _maiden_ at this point, but yes. Oh, don’t look so shocked, they’ve been here since death and I’ve had decades to get used to it.”

“And Fili too?”

“He had a great deal of fun reading over your shoulder as you wrote your book,” Thorin said. “That was when they realized they too were forgiven, despite all my prior affirmations.”

Bilbo sighed, “They died before I could tell them, poor things…”

“And then of course we had to keep an eye on you, your nephew, and Gimli as that mad new quest was started,” Thorin said. “Should have seen the boys when Frodo acquired Gollum as a travelling companion.”

“Oh dear, _no_ ,” Bilbo sighed, unable to stifle his chuckles. “They must have been…well, they must have-”

“Fili scolded Frodo for not ‘properly’ reading the book, or at least that part of it,” Thorin said, smirking. “I was more arguing that he listen to his friend Samwise Gamgee. Kili was just panicking.”

“Yes, I recall Frodo mentioning that to me on the ship. I asked if he’d even paid attention to my stories,” Bilbo chuckled. “Still, it all worked out, I suppose.”

“I suppose,” Thorin conceded.

“Wait, does this mean you’ve been doing _nothing_ with your afterlife besides following me around?” Bilbo asked.

“I reunited with people, of course. I’ve done some smithing.”

“But mostly you just watched me.”

“…Yes,” Thorin confessed.

“Oh you silly dwarf,” Bilbo sighed, smiling. “Did you not do anything for your own happiness?”

“Being close to you does bring me happiness,” Thorin huffed.

“I’d have gone mad,” Bilbo said. “Being around the one I love even if they could not see me, if they did not even know I was…was there…”

“Not when it was all I had,” Thorin said. “It would have been worse to stay in the halls and be entirely ignorant of your fate or when you might reach the plains. I could have missed you.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” Bilbo admitted, pulling Thorin closer by the braids. “Seeing you here was one of the best things I’ve ever received in my life…erm…afterlife?”

“I’m not too sure how dead you are, having sailed with the elves. Kili’s elf seemed to think the way Gandalf and Galadriel explained your passing mean you could go to whichever you pleased,” Thorin said. “Which is why you started here, I would assume.”

“Wait, so these plains are accessible by anyone?” Bilbo asked.

“Any,” Thorin agreed. “Though few have reason to leave their respective afterlives to come.”

“But Kili cannot go to Valinor and Tauriel cannot go to the Halls,” Bilbo said knowingly.

“And you can only watch Arda from here, not the Halls,” Thorin agreed.

“Oh, then we might be here awhile. I simply must see if Gimli does drag Legolas to the Glittering Caves and Legolas drags Gimli to Fangorn Forest,” Bilbo chuckled.

“Fili and Kili already have bets over which one will be more uncomfortable going round the company and Tauriel. She voted that Legolas will be more put out but will hide it better,” Thorin said. “I personally feel they will _both_ be supremely uncomfortable but shall likewise both hide it due to their young pride.”

“So the company has made spying on the living a pastime, have they?” Bilbo sighed.

“Quite a few of us, yes,” Thorin said. “Though it was mostly during the quest itself.”

Bilbo flinched, “How many of them know about the ring?”

“Many know _of_ it,” Thorin said. “But I swear, ghivashel, I was the only one who saw what it really did to you.”

“Are you sure?” Thorin knowing was bad enough, but the rest of the company…

“I am certain, Bilbo,” Thorin said, his hold on the hobbit tightening. “I watched the most early on and began to recognize the…warning signs, if you would. I swear it, âzyungel. Only I know.”

“Well, then that is only…slightly dreadful, then” Bilbo sighed.

“Of all people, how could _I_ think you weak for such?” Thorin asked softly. “How could I condemn you?”

“I feel like I should be, is all,” Bilbo said. “For never suspecting anything of it. For never doing anything. For shoving it all off onto Frodo.”

“You deserve no such thing,” Thorin sighed into his hair. “Bilbo, it is over and done. You are here now. It is past.”

“I suppose I know that,” Bilbo said, burying his face in Thorin’s shoulder. “But it’s nice to hear it…”

Something seemed to shift then. Bilbo felt a bit lighter, truth be told, but there was something else. He backed away from Thorin and looked down.

He was clad in what he’d worn when he ran out his door that morning all those years ago. He looked at his feet—the hair was thick and brown again. He quickly tried to pull some of his hair in front of his eyes but was failing utterly.

Thorin silently reached out and found a curl of appropriate length and pulled it down into Bilbo’s line of vision.

His hair was no longer thing and white, but thick and honey-colored once more. “So people can just…change age here?”

“One would assume. My grandfather and grandmother are younger than I ever recall them being, most certainly,” Thorin noted. “Perhaps you merely needed to let go of some things first, good thief.”

“You haven’t changed,” Bilbo noted. “You’re the same as you were on our quest. And I’m rather certain you were one of the oldest there…nearly two hundred, yes?”

“It is rather amusing to be older than some of my elder relatives, yes,” Thorin noted. “But you too are as you were on our quest, Mr. Baggins, which I am given to believe is at the start of middle-age for hobbits. Why not try younger yourself?”

“Well, yes, that quest was the happiest time of…my…life,” Bilbo said. “Oh.”

“There you have it, then,” Thorin said. “It was the same for me.”

“I would have thought your happiest might have been before the dragon came at all.”

“Ah, it was a happy time, yes,” Thorin acknowledged. “But I had not yet met my beloved yet, had I?”

“Romantic old dwarf,” Bilbo chuckled.

“Your romantic old dwarf, I should hope.”

“Oh, but of course.”

“Good, then,” Thorin said, pulling him in for a long kiss.

Bilbo smiled as he leaned in. It felt like coming home.

He wasn’t sure how long they kissed, only that when they stopped they were sprawled on the grass, Bilbo on top of Thorin and the dwarf running his hands down the hobbit’s sides.

“Thorin…I just realized something,” Bilbo said quietly. “I have entirely forgotten about my nephew.”

“If I had to wager, I think he may have found mine,” Thorin said. “The lads were ever so eager to ‘finally meet their little cousin’ after all this time.”

“Oh goodness. They’re going to drive him mad.”

“He handled Mordor, Bilbo, I’m sure Fili and Kili are nothing compared to that.”

“You don’t know how they can gang up on a hobbit, Thorin Oakenshield,” Bilbo chided. “I swear, how they strong-armed me into trying to get back the ponies…”

“I _do_ know, ghivashel, and let me say they were far worse about it when they were children.”

“…Yes, I can see how that might have been worse,” Bilbo admitted. “Still, if they’ve found Frodo, I suppose he’ll be safe enough…from…is there anything dangerous here?”

“Not that anyone I know has noticed,” Thorin said, folding his arms under his head. How one could still look so in-control and majestic while lying in the grass with a hobbit sitting on their chest, Bilbo would never know.

“Well we should go looking all the same. Heaven knows how long we’ve been kissing like tweens behind a barn…”

“I’s rather think we did it better than any shy tweens,” Thorin chuckled.

“Thorin Oakenshield if I was not worried for my nephew we would have so many words right now!” Bilbo scolded, hopping to his feet. “I swear, those two could drive Sauron himself mad if allowed to chat at him long enough.”

“Well, since your nephew has made sure Sauron is no longer to trouble Arda, I think my boys’ services shall be unneeded,” Thorin said.

“Yes, well, who knows what they’re telling the poor boy. You know how they love to exaggerate things,” Bilbo huffed. “Are you coming or not?”

“With you, âzyungel? Anywhere,” Thorin said, getting to his feet. “Even after my trouble-causing nephews.”

“Good, because frankly I shudder to think what-”

Both hobbit and dwarf paused at the burst of laughter they heard.

“Oh dear. They were quite nearby after all,” Bilbo groaned.

“Given how loudly and frequently my sister-sons talk, I would doubt they heard a thing from us,” Thorin said.

“Still, I cannot help but worry a bit when I hear Fili and Kili laughing like that. Especially for poor Frodo.”

“I’m sure he will be fine,” Thorin said as they followed the raucous laughter. “He takes after you, after all.”

“Over the hills with our boys ahead and the whole of the afterlife beyond,” Bilbo smiled. “Well. I might have expected to have an adventure here, but this is far more than I could have thought! Come, now, Thorin, let’s go!”


End file.
